The exhibition, which opened on 13 November and will remain on view until 7 December 2018, features the works of a Croatian polymath, lexicographer and inventor Faust Vrančić, and presents his contribution to scientific, cultural and religious European heritage 400 years after his death.

The exhibition’s opening ceremony included addresses by the Director of the Hungarian Academy in Rome (Accademia d’Ungheria in Roma) István Puskás, Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to the Holy See H. E. Mr. Neven Pelicarić, Ambassador of Hungary to the Holy See H. E. Mr. Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen, Director General of the National and University Library in Zagreb Tatijana Petrić and Director of the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla Markita Franulić.

The exhibition’s first part represents the works of this significant Croatian humanist, born in Šibenik in 1551. Owing to his great learning and scientific work in various fields, Vrančić distinguished himself as a true renaissance man, a homo universalis in every sense of the term, which made him fit to act as a diplomat, as well as bishop. He spent the greater part of his life in the Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom, Habsburg Monarchy, Venetian Republic and the Papal States. Through his works, aimed at the spiritual unification of Europe of that time, Vrančić transcended the boundaries of his national identity. Similarly, his lasting contribution to the development of Europe’s scientific, cultural and religious heritage has the same unifying potential for today’s Europe.

The second part of the exhibition, entitled Faust Vrančić – Machinae novae in Rome, is authored by Ivan Halić, from the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla. A specially designed replica of a movable mill roof, encircled by ten smaller models of mills, bridges and presses, represent the inventions and devices as Vrančić described them in his probably most famous work, Machinae novae. The displayed models are accompanied by 22 enlarged drawings from this Vrančić’s masterpiece, along with various exhibited publications related to it from the Museum’s library collection.

The exhibition’s opening programme also included a roundtable on Vrančić’s work which included prominent scientists Adriano Papo, from the Centre for Adriatic and Danubian Studies (Centro Studi Adria-Danubia), and Marijana Borić and Anja Nikolić-Hoyt, from the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Gathered visitors were also presented with the English version of Faust Vrančić, a virtual exhibition of the National and University Library in Zagreb, which is also available in Croatian.

The exhibition is organised with financial support from the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and Ministry of Culture.

NSK Director General Tatijana Petrić and Research Associate at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Marijana Borić at the opening of the “Faust Vrančić in the context of European heritage” (“Faust Vrančić e la sua eredità europea”) exhibition. Hungarian Academy in Rome (Accademia d’Ungheria in Roma), 13 November 2018.